Archive

BY KEITH NUTHALL
CARIBBEAN sugar processing companies in the Caribbean have lost a bid for damages at the European Court of Justice, over claims they were wrongfully penalised by safeguard duties imposed on their exports into the European Union. Rica Foods, Free Trade Foods and Suproco, of the (non-EU) Netherlands Antilles and Aruba were ordered to pay costs.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
TEMPORARY safeguard measures protecting Brazilian producers of dried coconuts, (shelled and shredded), have been imposed on imports into Brazil of this confectionary ingredient from the Ivory Coast and Indonesia. These countries supply 4.67 per cent and 59.49 per cent of dried coconut imports into Brazil respectively, said a note to the World Trade Organisation.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
CHILE has been given until December 23 to scrap a price band system, using variable import duties to maintain domestic sugar prices. A World Trade Organisation arbiter made the ruling after Chile lost a WTO dispute over the system, brought by Argentina.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE NEW European Food Safety Authority is to draw up a positive list of food flavourings scientifically validated as risk free. EFSA’s has authorised the Denmark’s Institute of Food Safety and Nutrition to evaluate up to 800 substances until 2005.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
ROMANIA has created a 20,000 tons low (18.8 per cent) customs duty quota for sugar imports from the European Union, as part of its plans to prepare for eventual membership of the EU.…

BY MARK ROWE
THE INDONESIAN government has awarded the country’s state logistics agency, Bulog, a license to import an extra 150,000 tons of sugar this year, in a bid to halt the dramatic increase in the price of sugar. A drastic sugar shortage has seen prices rise from 45 cents (US$) a kilo to 68 cents in recent weeks.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Parliament has tightened proposed restrictions on the use of cyclamates as low-calorie sweeteners in soft drinks, cutting the European Commission’s planned maximum level of 350 mg/l to 100 mg/l, as well as extending the new limit to milk-based drinks.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
CANADIAN wine producers have welcomed a draft agreement on a wide-ranging wine and spirits industry deal with the EU, believing that once formally signed, it will put Canadian wines “on the world stage.” EU agriculture Commissioner Franz Fischler said earlier this month (April) that for the EU the deal “presented certain advantages, (particularly) the ending by Canada of the use of certain names, the protection of geographical names, a positive list of oenological practices and a list of prohibited practices.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
POLITICAL pressure is rising on negotiators at the World Trade Organisation tasked with striking a deal over a geographical indication register for traditionally made wines and spirits. WTO members have long been debating the issue and have not been able to bridge the gap between countries such as the USA, which want a powerless register for guidance on protected terms and the EU and its allies, which want registration to grant compulsory worldwide protection.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has struck a deal with drinks giant Interbrew, freeing more than 7,000 Belgian tied pubs, restaurants and hotels from an obligation to serve only its beer. In future, this exclusively will be limited to draught pils, specifically Stella, Jupiler and Safir lager brands served from 30 litre or 50 litre kegs.…